Daniel is taking part in one of the Click On programmes on BBC Radio 4

Monday 5th April at 4.30pm

Producer Rich Preston sent me the following brief for the programme:

"The angle of the programme is pegged to the looming summer months and the fact that, with smart phones, there are now a number of applications that claim to be able to do the best job of getting you by in a foreign country.

Radio 4 is planning on having a group of language students come in to the studio to translate some text from English into French. They will be split into three teams: one to be given free reign of the internet and sites like Babelfish, another to be given an iPhone with a translation app installed, and the third to be given a good old fashioned dictionary.

At the end of the programme they'll be brought back to the studio for the results to be evaluated (and to consider aspects like accuracy, speed, etc). 

Your job will be to act as the language expert, evaluate the three translations and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of each effort, as well as the general pitfalls of relying too heavily on the technology.

I have been assured that you will have the opportunity to stress that professional translators only translate into their native tongue, as the students will most probably be British and translate into French."

to know all about this programme and the series CLICKON